China: Price of Revolution

Two years ago this week, Mao launched the Great Proletarian Cultural
Revolution, and the first wall poster, dripping with vitriol, blossomed
on the east wall of Peking University's dining hall. Fearful that China
was losing the purity of its first revolution and sliding down "the
capitalist road" taken by "bourgeois" Russia, Mao set out to purge his
vast nation of 750 million people. His weapons were the People's
Liberation Army and the youth of the Red Guards, whom he mobilized by
closing down the schools. His targets were the party and...